Are you prepared to pay the price?

I watched Elon Musk's presentation on how he plans to provide transportation to set up a colony on Mars. Truly awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping stuff. Whenever I see Elon talk I get this feeling in me that I'm not doing ambitious enough stuff with my own life. Why am I not working on something huge like going to Mars or curing cancer? It is like I feel guilty towards myself about it.

But what we don't see when enjoying that neat presentation with cool 3D renderings of a future with interplanetary travel, is everything that is going on behind the scenes. How much Elon Musk is sacrificing and has risked to get to where he is today with his projects. How deeply motivated he must be to be prepared to pay the price he is paying. The price in terms of health, stress, not seeing his family and all other forms of angst that comes with being an entrepreneur.

When I left Fyndiq a year ago, I had my vision set on some even larger entrepreneurial project. But after some soul searching I had to admit to myself that I was not at all prepared to pay the price of starting another company and taking it from idea to a successful and stable point.

We all need to ask ourselves what we want to do with our lives. But just as important is the question of whether we are prepared to pay the price. If you know what you want, and you know that you are prepared to pay the price, then it is just a matter of paying it and you will get there (if I'm not mistaken this was originally said by Napoleon Hill). In that sense success in any endeavour is pretty simple. Find out what you have to pay, and pay it.

I see a lot of people not seeming to understand this simple logic. A lot of people have dreams, but they don't bother figuring out what the price is to get there, and they just do half-assed attempts at fulfilling their dreams. The only result you get out of that is that you waste your time and energy.

What do you dream about doing? What is the price to get there? Are you willing to pay it?